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Events

The world’s major powers (the P5+1) and Iran have been negotiating since last January to convert an interim nuclear accord into a final agreement, and now face a November 24 deadline. As this critical date nears, please join us for this meeting to address the outcome of the negotiations—whether successful in yielding an agreement, extended to allow further negotiations, or at a point of breakdown. What are the implications for U.S. policy toward Iran moving forward, as well as for the broader global effort to forestall the proliferation of nuclear weapons? This event honors the late Michael Adler, distinguished journalist and Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center, whose illuminating work improved the quality of public discourse on this vital issue.

Rather than beginning with the “Arab Spring,” the grassroots resurgence of political Islam began in Iraq in the early 1980s. It immediately exerted powerful influence over the policies of Saddam Husayn and his secular Ba’th regime. In a 1986 secret meeting of the Ba’th leadership, Saddam dragged his reluctant comrades screaming and kicking to accept an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood, among the Ba’th most feared and despised enemies. In this he launched an incremental Islamization campaign that reached its peak just before the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The book attempts to explain why and how was it done and how it touched the inner souls of party and leader. It seems that ISIS represents a leap from Saddam’s Islamization campaign. Is ISIS, then, Saddam’s dead hand, thrusting out of his grave in Tikrit?

As oil prices drop, The Wilson Center is focusing on the political and economic implications of lower petroleum prices, as long as they continue, in a number of key countries. Leading experts will speak to what the future could hold for Russia, Iraq, Nigeria, and Venezuela with an added perspective on Saudi pricing power.

Matthew Barber, who has conducted research within the Yazidi community and who was in Kurdistan Province when it was attacked by ISIS this summer, and Murad Ismail, a Yazidi-American advocate for the Yazidi community, originally from Sinjar, are both members of the Yazidi delegation visiting Washington, D.C. and are working on efforts to rescue kidnapped Yazidi women.

Events in the Middle East have focused of late on Iraq, Syria, and the battle against ISIS. But Israel retains its centrality as a dynamic actor in the region and sits at the nexus of several critically important issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, relations with the Arab world, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Join us for a conversation and discussion of these and other matters with one of Israel’s most experienced and foremost analysts of Israeli politics and national security challenges.

Seventy years after the Holocaust, anti-Semitism is once again being expressed publicly and violently. Classic anti-Semitic tropes are freely expressed; signs reading “Jews to the gas” and “Hitler should have finished the job,” are common; and Jews have been attacked and murdered. Two panelists will discuss this phenomenon, which is especially prevalent in Europe and the Middle East.

Tehran has had a longstanding alliance with Damascus over the past 35 years, and its relations with Baghdad have steadily improved since the ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. This has resulted in close ties between Iran and these two key Arab states. However, this has all been called into question since the eruption of the Syrian revolt in 2011, and moreover, the recent rise of ISIS and its challenge to the Iraqi state. Iran has become heavily involved in both conflicts since it has much at stake. Jubin Goodarzi provides an overview of the evolving situation and focus on Iran’s policies, perspectives, interests, and options in the ongoing Syrian and Iraqi crises.

Water is a key ingredient for peace, especially in the Middle East. The Jordan River, which forms the border between Israel, the Palestinian West Bank, and Jordan, is central to the interrelated political and environmental challenges facing the region. Addressing these challenges requires not only high-level diplomacy but also direct, people-to-people engagement, which can form lasting relationships that go beyond water, said experts at the Wilson Center on October 17.

Please join us as Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist Tom Friedman interviews Aaron David Miller about his new book The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.

Over the past four years, Syria and the entire Middle East have witnessed unprecedented changes. This lecture will look back on these events in the expectation of determining what may come next. Special attention will be paid to U.S. foreign policy, the growth and proliferation of terrorist organizations such as ISIS, the fate of minorities in the region, and the state of cultural patrimony.